Game Day!

  Today in Jimmy's class we played board games for the entire class period. Not only did we get to be kids and get to see how fun they were, but we got to study the board games. The things that we had to study were the story, characters, themes, icons, conflict, risk-reward, symbolism and the way you win.  When I started to play the games with my classmates I kept these things in mind. The games that I got to play were Chutes and Ladders, Scrabble, Cranium and Life. The game that really stood out to me was Life. As I was playing it with my classmates I started to think about different things like what was the theme behind Life. I figured that by taking a career or taking the college path and seeing if the game gives you a great outcome in Life, it was as though you got to learn a thing or two about real life. The characters in the game were cars. The way that you won the game was to get through it and the person with the most money in the end won. With playing the game we had to find the strategy of the game. We learned that if on your turn you landed on the space that had trade salary with another player, this was the best thing that you can get because you were able to get a higher salary than the one that you got in the beginning of the game. In the end, I liked how much fun we all had playing the game.

A TED speech with John Maeda

 I liked this speech that Jimmy showed us in class today about John Maeda on simplicity. One thing that I liked about his speech was how he explained the law of Simplicity and complexity. I liked when he said, "Simplicity is about living life with more enjoyment and less pain." I liked the fact that the message was how we should look at the simple things in life and how we should enjoy the things we see in the world.  This discussion inspires me to try to be less stressed and look at the world through more simple eyes. There are a lot of things that people don't see because they simply don't open their eyes.

The conceptualization reading

The further I get into this book, the further I feel like being led in the right direction of where my work is going and how I can make it better. This chapter on conceptualizing goes into detail about how to make your vision become a reality.  A main theme that starts off the chapter is Gestalt Perception. It talks about how to get your concept across to others as well as how to make sure it’s what your client wants and needs at the same time. You have to take in all aspects of your idea even though you only have a concept. You have to take that concept and make it come alive on paper and in the eyes of the people that you need to sell it to and the people you need to work with.

            One good idea that I learned about creating my concept is brainstorming. The book tells you that any kind of organization is a good start and I like that. I always thought organization had to be this big deal and I should have everything in order, but I was wrong. All I really need is a notebook or just a place to put my random ideas to paper so that I can go back to them later. There doesn’t have to be a plan and I appreciate it because that is not how I work when I’m starting a project. I also like the idea of brainstorming by myself. It’s hard sometimes to get my thoughts out to others without going over them in my head first so brainstorming on my own is a good tool to help me get started. I also think that cubing is a great way to get in order. You have to look at your work from six different perspectives. I think that by doing this, you can hit every obstacle from every angle. It’s like covering your bases and making sure every part of your work is taken care of.

            When I was reading about Jill Pable and her work in interior design, I was glad to read about someone else who puts her heart into her work. She works with homeless people and the way she designs shows how she is willing to help others. It goes back to the first part of the chapter where Aspelund makes it clear that you have to make sure your concept helps, not hurts, society and the environment as a whole.

Classroom Presentation

On Wednesdays class we talked about presentation and how important it is for a graphic designer to have these skills. Jimmy made us understand that as a graphic designer we will be presenting a lot and that we should get comfortable at doing them. It was nerve racking when he made everyone in the class get up and talk about three things that people wouldn't know about you. I thought that the practice  was a good thing  but when I went up I was so nervous. But in the end, I like how Jimmy made the people in our class give us some feedback about we need to work on when we present.

Working with images

On Monday's class with Jimmy we all shared our images with our ten phrases, and it seemed that a lot of us were wrong about the assignment. So for our homework we had to redo the assignment again. This time, we were all put to the challenge to find another image and ten new phrases. As I did this assignment again I learned just like the first time that it was hard. What made it hard for me was to look at the image and come up with different phrases. As I came up with some of them that I though would be good, I would read them and think that they didn't sound right or that they were dumb. In the end I learned that you have to be creative and to push your creativity. It's a lot of work just to come up with an idea. It takes a lot of thinking about the picture you're looking at and deciding what thinking process to use when looking at the picture.

Elizabeth Gilbert Speech

For Wednesdays class we saw a speech on Elizabeth Gilbert that she did at Tedd. It was about the inner genius and where she gets her inner genius from. What I liked about her speech was how she did her speech was how she did it as though she was telling a story from beginning to end. I really liked how motivating she was in helping you as an individual to find that inner genius to help you create your ideas.  One of the ideas that she talked about that I see that I already use is how she talks to herself to get your inner genius to help you create your ideas. I do the same but i talk to my brain to see if there is a brain genius that can help my mind do what it needs to do and focus and concentrate to get the job done.

Mondays Class assignment

On Monday Jimmy gave the class an assignment to find three unrelated images that when sequenced together that could tell a story.  At first I thought this assignment should be easy, but I was wrong. It was a little harder than I thought. What made it hard for me was finding the three images and seeing how they would go together. But then I thought about the story that I wanted to tell and it made looking for the images much easier. I seems to me that with out words it makes it hard to tell a story.

Indentification Chapter

After learning about inspiration and the important role it plays in design, it was nice to read about identification. I thought the chapter on identification was a nice follow up. It was like after figuring out what drives my passion for design, I am now being shown ways to identify those things in the real world.

            I thought that most of the chapter on Identification dealt with ways to help the planet by designing products that benefit the planet and how we can keep it green. The thing that I took away from this chapter though was something else. I liked how Aspelund integrated the factor of time in design. My favorite quote from the chapter is “assume everything takes at least 15 minutes”. The way he breaks down the formula of getting your work done and including the constraints and pitfalls of what could happen during your project was a very useful tool.

           

            Everyone knows about Murphy’s Law. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. The author of this book preps you for the chance that your project will definitely go wrong. It is a no fail situation when you are already prepared for something bad to happen. He goes into great detail, word for word, about how to recognize obstacles before they even come your way and also how to keep constraints on your work so that you stay on task and focused.

I think it’s important that after you find your inspiration, you get a hold of it so that others can see it to and how important it is to you and them. By identifying your work and all the things that go along with it, you produce better art and/or designs.

Inspiration chapter reading

This chapter was all about inspiration. That is something that has to be important to any artist if they want to succeed. I love the fact that the author encourages the readers to go out and find inspiration, but at the same time, he cautions you to look out for false inspiration. False inspiration is another person’s idea that you follow because you think that’s where your mind is headed. You don’t realize until it’s too late that that’s not the route you wanted to take.

            Another way that he suggests you find inspiration is to look at things outside of what you want to make. For example, if you want to design a chair, don’t just look at chairs. Look at different things around you and see what you can take from those places and experiences.

            When it comes to art, I have always had a vivid imagination. I have always looked at things from different perspectives than what they really were. This was one of my favorite parts of the chapter when Aspelund says how designers need to get back the imagination they had as a child. Just because you see one thing doesn’t mean you can’t create it to be something else.

            One of the main things that fascinates me about the way this book is written is the fact that the author encourages you to be all that you can be but at the same time he warns you to stay on track in order to succeed. You can imagine and create anything by getting some inspiration, but you need to be on top of your game and handle what business needs to be handled. If you have deadlines, project dates and things like that, you can’t let your imagination run wild. You have to find the balance between finding inspiration and getting the work done. In this way, I feel like the book is a guide for those of us who really want to pursue design.

Sir Ken Robinson From Wednesdays class

On Wednesday we watched a video on Sir Ken Robinson. It was of one of his talks that he did at a school to promote his  new book 'The Element'. The things that caught my attention was when he talked about finding your passion and the ways that you can do that. It is crazy how we go through life trying to find our passion and when we think we have found it we end up not being happy with our outcome of the career that we have chosen. This was something that Ken Robinson was talking about and how it happens to a lot of people. He said that this happens a lot because we don't take the time to develop and keep in practice our passion,or how some time society, friends and family can discourage us from pursuing our passion. With hearing his speech it made me more inspired to keep on going with my career goal to get my Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design. I think that with my passion and love for art I will be successful as long as I continue to stay passionate about my work and look for new ways to learn and grow in the area of design.

My Alien Idea map

Hey everyone this was the idea map assignment that we had to do for Jimmy's class. This was mine I wanted to put it up because I really liked how it came out. But one of the most important things that I learned from this assignment was how important an idea map can be when working with an idea or a concept.

Introduction Reading part 2

The introduction to the book picks up where the preface left off.  Aspelund delivers exactly what he talked about in the preface. The main theme is design itself. It comes at the beginning of the book, and I think that the beginning is a good place to start discussing what design is in general. I have had many textbooks that just jump into  figures, charts, and graphs and it’s hard to keep up. When Aspelund says that he will approach each process and stage individually, he does just that.

 

The beginning of the introduction starts off with an explanation of design, followed by how it is so closely related to the designer. I especially liked the part about how the author breaks it down into a relationship with stages from start to finish. Aspelund also goes into the pitfalls, demands and challenges of a designer as well as the goals, responsibilities and successes that a designer can have too. In the preface, the textbook breaks down different components of each chapter. The Perspective focuses on a different designer every chapter and how that designer relates to specific issues of the chapter. Of course the first chapter, which explains all things design, is dedicated to Karl Aspelund, the designer. It was interesting to hear how he started in design and what avenues were not open to him, but are available to us as designers now.

 

I think that the first exercise is a good way to start getting through the book. By starting a design journal, it allows you to track your progress later on. You can see how far you’ve come and you can also see your ideas on paper from start to finish.

Introduction Reading

  After reading the preface to The Design Process, I immediately started to get excited just to be able to read the rest of the book.  The way Karl Aspelund speaks through his pages, to me, as a designer, is like a teacher standing in front of the classroom guiding me through my own creative process. The quote he used at the beginning of the book b Nietzsche I think set the tone for the rest of the text. The part that spoke to me most was, …”I shall show them the rainbow and all the steps…” As a designer, that is all I want to do. Show someone the steps and how to create what’s in my head to paper.

  The main reason Aspelund gives for writing his book the way he did is that when he first started out, there were no books that showed each and every process of design in a way that led a student down the correct path. There are many design books that talk about design and show you how to do specific things, but this is one textbook that allows the student to grow as a designer. It takes the students through certain stages that they should be going through to get to the end of an idea or thought process.

  The preface of this book goes into detail when telling you how to utilize the rest of the book. Aspelund has a way of writing that makes you think you are reading a regular book, not a textbook. It’s an easy read that guides you through what you need to be learning, when you need to be learning it.

My Cal State Los Angeles Story

Last Wednesday we were talking about Visual Literacy and the effects that a picture can have on someone. We also talked about how a graphic designer is always working pictures and they use them to get their thoughts across. At the end of the class we had to make our own a picture illustration on how we ended up at Cal State Los Angeles, and this is my story I wanted to share with all off you.